Certain diagnostic or therapeutic procedures require the formation of a cavity in a bone mass. This procedure can be used to treat any bone, for example, bone which due to osteoporosis, avascular necrosis, cancer, or trauma, is fractured or is prone to compression fracture or collapse. These conditions, if not successfully treated, can result in deformities, chronic complications, and an overall adverse impact upon the quality of life.
For example, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,969,888, 5,108,404, and 5,827,389, an expandable body is deployed to form a cavity in cancellous bone tissue, as part of a therapeutic procedure that fixes fractures or other abnormal bone conditions, both osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic in origin. The expandable body compresses the cancellous bone to form an interior cavity. The cavity receives a filling material, which provides renewed interior structural support for cortical bone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,845 described a surgical tool for preparing a graft site between opposing vertebra. The tool has a distal end with external dimensions sized to be passed through the patient's anatomy to a point of entry on the spine. At each incremental extension, the surgeon rotates the handle so that the blades cut out a large chamber equal to the size of the diameter of the extended extendable blades located on the distal end of the tool. After each such cut, the handle is turned to progressively increase the diameter of the cutting edges of blades until a chamber of desired size (up to the diameter of the fully extended blades) is formed. Intermittently, between enlarging the diameter of the cavity, the surgeon may retract the blades and remove the tool to flush the cavity being formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,037 describes a percutaneous surgical retractor having an outer sleeve with an open beveled configuration and having an angle defining a leading edge on the distal end of the outer sleeve to facilitate percutaneous insertion of the retractor; a blade slidable within said outer sleeve between at least a deployed position extending beyond the distal end of the outer sleeve and a retracted position disposed within the outer sleeve, the blade having a deployable memory curved distal end.